51%
of London homeowners said they would do things differently if they could go back.
If you bought a home in London and now wish you hadn't, you are not alone. You are, in fact, the majority.
In April 2025, Opinium polled 2,000 UK adults on behalf of the HomeOwners Alliance. The headline national figure made the property pages: 37% of UK homeowners said they regret aspects of their purchase, or would do things differently if they could go back. London was worse. 51% of London homeowners said the same thing — the highest regret rate of any region in the country.
The honest reading is uncomfortable. London's homeowners — the people who stretched the furthest, paid the most, and sat through the most viewings — are also the most likely to wish they'd chosen differently.
That doesn't mean buying in London is a mistake. Most homeowners eventually settle in, decorate, build equity, and grow into the place. But it does mean something more useful: the regrets are concentrated in a small handful of categories, and almost every one of them is the kind of thing you can research before you sign.
Source: Opinium for HomeOwners Alliance, fieldwork 1–5 April 2025, n=2,000 UK adults (1,269 homeowners).
How seriously to take these numbers
A note on the polling
The figures here come from a single national survey: Opinium's poll for the HomeOwners Alliance, fielded between 1 and 5 April 2025 with a nationally representative sample of 2,000 UK adults (1,269 homeowners). The London sub-sample is necessarily smaller than the national one, so the London-specific percentages should be read as directional rather than precision.
We've cross-checked the headline figures against the published HOA write-up before quoting them. Where a number could not be independently traced to the published report, we've left it out.
01
Regret one
They picked the wrong neighbourhood
The single biggest regret in the under-35 cohort was location. 27% of younger UK buyers said they were unhappy with where they ended up.
The pattern is intuitive — first-time buyers are forced to compromise hardest on area, because area is what gets traded away when you stretch to the budget ceiling.
Why this happens in London more than anywhere else: a London neighbourhood doesn't just mean a postcode. It means a high street, a station, a school catchment, a crime profile, a rent-to-buy mix, a journey to your office, a journey to your closest hospital. People buy on a Saturday viewing in summer and discover the area is unrecognisable on a wet Tuesday in February.
What this looks like in practice. A buyer settles for SE15 because it's the cheapest two-bed they can afford within thirty minutes of King's Cross. They don't realise their actual commute uses the Overground via Surrey Quays, not the Thameslink they were imagining. They don't notice the high street is half boarded up two streets in. They've bought an SE15 postcode but they live a different SE15 than the one they researched.
How to avoid it
Visit at three different times of day, including a weekday evening. Walk from the front door to the station you'd actually use. Ask one shop owner on the high street how things have changed in the last three years. Read a PAL neighbourhood guide for the property data, transport reality, and resident-quoted character — that's the ground truth that doesn't show up in an estate agent description.
Deeper read
Browse all PAL neighbourhood guides
Fact-checked property data, transport reality, and resident-quoted character for every area covered.
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02
Regret two
They underestimated the cost
29% of younger UK buyers underestimated what buying or renovating would cost them. The London-specific figure is similarly stark — 23% of London homeowners said they wished they'd budgeted more carefully for the buying or renovation costs.
This isn't the deposit. The deposit is the part everyone plans for. The numbers people miss are the layered ones around it: Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT), legal fees, the Level 2 or Level 3 survey, search fees, mortgage product fees, the buildings insurance you need on completion day, and the costs that arrive after you have the keys — a new boiler, the rewire the electrician quietly recommended, the chimney that needs lining before you light the first fire.
The London-specific bit. SDLT in London is brutal because London prices are brutal. A first-time buyer paying £500,000 (a fairly ordinary one-bed in Zone 2) currently pays no SDLT at all, but a second-stepper buying at the same price pays £15,000. Move that figure to £700,000 — closer to a family flat in Zone 2 — and a non-first-time buyer is paying £25,000 in SDLT alone. That is a number people see on completion day, not before.
How to avoid it
Use HMRC's official SDLT calculator before you put in an offer, not after. Add a 10% buffer on top of every fee quoted to you. Budget separately for the first six months in the home — boilers fail, fridges die, ceilings drip. PAL's moving logistics guides break down the borough-by-borough costs (council tax bands, parking permits, removals) so the post-completion bills don't ambush you.
Deeper read
The Real Cost of Buying in London
The five cost layers buyers underestimate, SDLT worked examples, and the borough-by-borough running cost table.
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03
Regret three
They bought leasehold without understanding what they were signing
This is the regret that hits London hardest, and by some distance. Across the UK, 4% of homeowners said they regret buying leasehold. In London, that figure rises to 10% — two and a half times the national rate.
That isn't because Londoners are uninformed. It's because London is a leasehold city. Most flats in London are leasehold. Most ex-local authority blocks are leasehold. Most Victorian conversions, mansion blocks, and new-build apartments are leasehold. If you are buying a flat in London, the default question is not "freehold or leasehold" — it's "what kind of leasehold."
The regrets concentrate around five things: short remaining lease lengths and the cost of extending; ground rents that escalate aggressively; service charges that climb without obvious justification; major-works bills that arrive in five-figure lumps; and post-cladding-scandal building safety remediation costs that some leaseholders have been left holding.
How to avoid it
Before you make an offer on a leasehold flat, ask for the lease length, the current ground rent and any escalator clause, the last three years of service charge accounts, and any pending Section 20 major-works notices. If the lease is under 85 years, factor a lease extension into your purchase price. If you don't understand what you're reading, instruct a conveyancer who specialises in leasehold and ask them to summarise the risks in plain English before you exchange.
Deeper read
Buying Leasehold in London: The Honest 2026 Guide
The twelve-check pre-exchange checklist, the lease length cliff, and what the 2024 Reform Act still doesn't fix.
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04
Regret four
They compromised too hard on space
17% of younger UK buyers regret compromising on space — a bedroom too few, no outdoor space, no room for a desk. In London the figure for compromising on property features sits at 15% in the HOA data.
This regret has a distinct shape. It rarely shows up in the first six months. It shows up when life changes: a baby arrives, a partner moves in, a job becomes hybrid and the kitchen table is now a permanent desk. The flat that worked for two adults at 28 stops working for a family of three at 33.
How to avoid it
Don't buy for the life you have today. Buy for the life you are likely to be living in five years, then work backwards from there. If the answer is "we don't know," prioritise flexibility — a study that could become a nursery, a layout that can take a wall coming down, a building that allows loft conversions. Outdoor space is the single feature people regret skipping most, because it's the one you cannot retrofit.
Deeper read
London's Greenest Neighbourhoods: 2026 Data Ranking
All 50 PAL-covered neighbourhoods ranked by green-space access, methodology aligned with the PAL Score.
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05
Regret five
They bought a new build expecting low maintenance and got something else
10% of younger UK buyers said they regret buying a new build.
The category-specific complaints in HOA's wider research — and in the long-running coverage from organisations like the New Homes Quality Board — concentrate on snagging that drags on for months, developers who stop responding after completion, estate management charges on un-adopted estates, and, in a smaller number of cases, the cladding and building-safety fallout that has dragged through the courts since Grenfell.
This is not a "don't buy new build" message. New builds in the right scheme can be excellent — energy-efficient, warranty-protected, and free of the surprise costs that come with a 1900s terrace. But they are not the low-maintenance, low-thought option that the brochure implies.
How to avoid it
Ask whether the estate is adopted by the council or managed privately (un-adopted estates carry ongoing estate charges). Read the latest snagging reports from buyers in the same scheme — Reddit, the New Homes Quality Board database, and the developer's own reviews. Insist on a professional snagging survey before you complete, not after, and budget for it (typically £300–£600). Ask the developer for the names of the building-safety regulator notices applied to the building, if any.
Deeper read
Buying a New Build in London
The three-checkpoint reservation framework, snagging, fleecehold, and the New Homes Quality Code v2.
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What this poll doesn't show
What HOA's data doesn't tell you
It's worth being honest about the limits. The Opinium poll measures self-reported regret. It doesn't measure what those people actually did about it — whether they sold, remortgaged, renovated, or stayed put and made peace with the choice. It doesn't break the London figure down by borough, by tenure type, or by purchase year.
It also doesn't capture the people who don't regret anything. The 49% of London homeowners who, in the same poll, didn't say they wished they'd done something differently. The honest version of the story is that buying in London is a high-stakes decision with a roughly 50/50 chance of leaving you with at least one significant regret — and that the regrets cluster in places you can do something about before you sign.
That's what PAL exists for. Every neighbourhood guide on this site is built around the questions the HOA respondents wish they'd asked: what is this area actually like to live in, how much does it actually cost, what is the school you'd actually use rated, what is the commute you'd actually take. We use Land Registry, Ofsted, the Met Police, TfL, and the local councils — not estate agent copy.
The shortlist
A six-step pre-offer check (London edition)
Before you put in an offer on any London property, run these six checks. They take an evening. They will catch most of the regrets above.
1
Walk the area at three times of day. A weekday morning, a Saturday afternoon, a wet Tuesday evening.
2
Verify the commute on Citymapper at peak time — not midday — using the actual station you'd use, not the postcode-closest one.
3
Pull the current Ofsted rating and inspection date for every primary and secondary school in the catchment area. If the rating is over three years old, weight it down.
4
Run the SDLT calculator on the asking price — not the offer you intend to make — and add a 10% contingency on top of every fee your conveyancer quotes.
5
If leasehold: get the lease length, ground rent, last three years of service charge, and any Section 20 notices in writing before you exchange.
6
Read the latest PAL guide for the neighbourhood for property prices, crime trends, transport reality, and what residents actually say about living there.
Frequently asked
Frequently asked questions
Why is buyer's regret higher in London than anywhere else in the UK? +
The Opinium poll for HomeOwners Alliance (April 2025) found 51% of London homeowners would make different choices if they could go back, against a UK average of 37%. The most likely drivers are price pressure (London buyers stretch budgets the furthest), the dominance of leasehold (London leasehold regret runs at 10% vs 4% nationally), and the speed of competitive offers, which forces compromises on area and property features.
What do London homeowners regret most? +
The biggest London-specific regrets in the HOA research are underestimating the total cost of buying or renovating (23%), regretting the property features they compromised on (15%), and regretting buying leasehold (10%).
Is it a bad time to buy in London? +
That question doesn't have a single answer — it depends on your job security, your deposit, your plan, and your risk appetite. What the data does suggest is that buyers who do their homework on the specific neighbourhood, the specific lease, and the specific total cost of buying are far less likely to end up regretting the decision than buyers who rely on the estate agent's framing.
What is the single biggest mistake first-time London buyers make? +
According to the HOA research, it's underestimating cost — 29% of younger UK buyers and 23% of Londoners said they wished they'd budgeted more carefully. The deposit is the part people plan for. SDLT, fees, renovation, and the first six months of running costs are where the budget gets caught short.
Should I avoid leasehold flats in London? +
Not necessarily — most flats in London are leasehold, so avoiding the tenure entirely massively narrows your options. But the regret rate is meaningfully higher (10% vs 4% nationally), so the homework is non-negotiable: lease length, ground rent, service charge history, and major-works exposure should all be confirmed in writing before you exchange.